Blog Archives

Credit Health: You’ve pulled your credit and are either working on increasing your scores or have stellar credit and are ready to move forward.

Down Payment: You have reviewed all of your assets and you know how much you can viably put down.

How much you can afford: You have run your preliminary numbers and have a basic idea as to what you can afford. Remember, you can adjust the property taxes and insurance (if you are condo don’t forget to add monthly assessments to your monthly mortgage payment).

Rate Shopping: You learned how to responsibly shop for a mortgage lender, loan officer, fees and competitive rates. Additionally, you now understand the basics of how mortgage rates are derived.

Documentation: While the list of paperwork may appear insurmountable, take one piece at a time (believe it or not you do have all of the documents). This is where your organizational prowess will come in handy.

You’ve done a lot of work and will now move into the second half of the process. With all of your documentation and information in one place it’s time to contact your chosen loan officer and complete the application. The completion of your application should take about fifteen- minutes and once complete you can expect your loan officer will:

Pull your credit.
Discuss with you program options (i.e. Fixed or ARM)
Check on the day’s rates for the program you are most interested.
Request paperwork (which you have gathered and are ready to send).
Run your application through an automated underwriting system. This is an automated engine which runs your loan scenario and provides an instant approval. While your loan still needs to be cleared by an underwriter, the automated approvals are very reliable.
Issue a pre-approval letter.

Any questions you have should be asked and don’t be shy – this is your money and your commitment.

The loan disclosures total approximately 30 pages; this also depends on the State in which you are purchasing as some States have additional disclosures. Ideally you want to return the signed disclosures within three days. You will have various questions; it’s best to run through the entire package then contact your loan officer with your list of questions.

Upon receipt of your signed disclosures (mortgage application package) your loan will be on its way to be processed. At this stage the appraisal is ordered, rate locked and other administrative documents are ordered to prepare for submission to an underwriter.

Now, take a deep breath and let your mortgage team work for you.

By: Selene Garcia for Guarrenteed Rate.com

To check out my profile, references and the references of the other agents, just click on my picture to go to my profiles and read what our clients say about us. Pick the broker that you think is right for you. Of course I hope it’s me, but if not then best wishes!